Wednesday, October 05, 2016

Rift's newest and - according
to some - biggest expansion pack, Starfall Prohecy, is closing in on its launch
date, and the community is indeed feeling the effects of the hype already, with
many planning to return to action in what's quite possibly the most successful
and generous free-to-play MMO out there. The Dev team behind Rift have indeed
been pushing out regular updates and expansion packs, and Starfall Prophecy
falls well in line with that. While some will be disappointed by the fact that
this new expansion doesn't actually bring new souls and new callings, it does
in fact have plenty of bang, in the shape of tons and tons of new content,
comprised of new zones, a new raid, new dungeons, legendary powers and planar
assault adventures, as well as quite a number of new features, like the
increased level cap, the Looking for Raid feature, the individual reward system
as well as active upgrades and planar fragments. Starfall Prophecy can't really
be summed up in a nutshell like this, because it's so much more than a sum of
its parts.

The new zones for instance - of
which there will be no fewer than five - are all massive and uniquely
attractive. Furthermore: they're all situated on an asteroid which is hurtling
towards Telara, with the intent to destroy it too, in addition to the worlds
it's already passed through. The storyline is obviously about players trying to
prevent the cataclysm. The said asteroid is the comet of Ahnket, the main
villain of the expansion, whom players will have to tackle in the final act of
the story, in what will essentially be some of the hardest content ever
produced by the Rift universe. Let us not cut ahead of the chase though and
take a closer look at the above mentioned five zones.

The Scatherran Forest is where
the expansion gets started, around levels 65-66. Then, players will move on to
the Gedlo Badlands, followed by Xarth Mire and Ashenfell as they level up to
70. The final zone is the Tenebrean Schism, but this part of Starfall Prophecy
will only be added after the actual launch. There's also a sort of city/start-zone/quest
hub on the asteroid, called Alittu - a name which for some reason does sound
rather end-of-the-world-ish indeed.

The Tower of Ahnket is obviously
located in the Tenebrian Schism, and - if played on full difficulty - this will
indeed be the hardest content ever to befall the well-meaning denizens of
Telara. Fortunately, through the Looking for Raid Grouping tool, everyone will
be able to play through this stage, thus seeing the story conclude. While
everyone will indeed receive rewards for soldering through the Tower, the real
value will land in the laps of those who do it at full difficulty.

Past the level cap, a number of
additional features come into play to keep players busy, like the new Eternal
Items and the new Active Upgrade system.

Philip Thalberg works for the world's top
destination for eSports coverage, Gosugamers.net.